Chris Gayle strolls into town this week, bristling with ammo, and he is not a
Lone Ranger.

He brings with him some serious West Indian all-rounders who have been winning their spurs in the Indian Premier League, and suddenly West Indies are transformed from no-hopers in the Test series to marginal favourites for the three 50-over matches and decided favourites for the solitary Twenty20 international.

Gayle would have made such a difference to the tourists’ Test side, if only the West Indian board had not washed its dirty linen in public and alienated him. Imagine England opening their Test innings with Joe Root, James Taylor and Jonny Bairstow at one, two and three. This is what West Indies have had to do — throwing in boys to swim, or rather sink – in Gayle’s absence.

But now Gayle and his bandanna will be back, ready to fire big shots against any England bowler who dares to pitch the ball up. It is a shame that hits cannot be measured accurately. If they could, one on-drive that Gayle launched out of the Oval against Brett Lee in the World Twenty20 of 2009 might just have been measured as the biggest hit of all time.

And Gayle does not only bring his seize-the-initiative batting. Overtly too cool to rush, he actually races through his overs of off-breaks, complementing the both-ways spin of Sunil Narine that England will have to fathom. Gayle is so quick on the draw that he has completed his spell of

Then there are four all-rounders coming with him from the IPL. Dwayne Bravo should be one of the few pace-bowling all-rounders in Test cricket, along with Jacques Kallis and Shane Watson, but at least he is in the West Indies’ limited-over teams, while Andre Russell is quicker, and valued at $450,000 (£290,000) by Delhi Daredevils.

A third all-rounder, Dwayne Smith, has never translated his talent into performance, but that does not stop him being a potentially dangerous hitter.

And the fourth, Kieron Pollard, is the prototype of today’s young cricketer, specialising in Twenty20 cricket around the world and all the richer — materially, at least, – for not caring about traditional, Test-match techniques.

Alastair Cook makes a fine upstanding young sheriff, but bystanders and barmaids are to going to hide if he and Ian Bell march out to open.

Craig Kieswetter would be slightly more explosive if he opened with Cook, followed by Bell at three, but that would mean demoting or dropping Jonathan Trott and England’s current stage of development (promising but gauche student) does not allow them to dispense yet with a reliable run-getter. In the longer term though, Bell’s strike-rate has more growth potential than Trott’s as he now seems prepared to ‘go aerial’.

What can tip the one-day series in England’s favour are the overhead conditions at Southampton, the Oval and Headingley. If the ball is swinging when England’s seamers pitch the ball up, even Gayle will not be blasting straight back every time.